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Daycare camera captures caregiver's wholesome excitement over baby's first steps

Isn't this reaction what every working parent wants?

Representative photo credit: Canva

A baby's first steps are an exciting milestone for parents and caregivers alike.

Parenthood has changed a lot over the past century, as more and more moms have entered the workforce full-time. In the U.S. in particular, where parental leave is a fraction of what other countries get, childcare providers abound, meeting for a vital need for working parents and their children.

Finding someone you trust to care for your child with the love and attention you want for them isn't always easy, so when you find them, it's worth celebrating. That's why a video from mom Lauren Pontiff showing her baby's daycare provider's wholesome reaction to her child's first steps has people cheering.

In the video, daycare provider Shikira is playing with another baby on the floor while Pontiff's child stands holding onto the leg of a table. Soon, Pontiff's child steps away from the table, tottering on two feet towards her. And when she looks up and sees what's happening, she immediately responds by clapping, arms outstretched, rocking and motioning the baby to walk towards her, clearly filled with joy. Then she swoops the baby into her arms in triumphant celebration.

Watch:

@laurenpontiff

The best feeling is seeing the excitement and how happy someone else can be for your child’s first steps!! 🥹🥰

Isn't this exactly what working parents want? Someone who cares for their child as if they were their own, giving them adult interactions that lift them up and let them know they are cherished?

As Pontiff wrote in the caption, "The best feeling is seeing the excitement and how happy someone else can be for your child's first steps." In a comment on the video, she wrote, "She’s loved all of our babies with ALL of her heart!! So glad to have Shikira in our babies lives!! 💗"

Naturally, parents want to be there for their children's big milestones, but that's not always possible. Even without daycare, a parent could miss their child's first steps if they were with a grandparent or a babysitter at the time. Some daycare providers have a policy of not telling parents when a child takes their first steps so that the parent can experience that rush themselves, but having a camera monitor offers some peace of mind that outweighs that desire for many parents.

Most people in the comments understood the joy of this moment being captured on video, not just because of the first steps but because of Shikira's response.

"The type of day care worker all places need!!"

"Imagine leaving for work knowing this is the type of love your kid is getting 😢😩❤️❤️❤️❤️"

"The way she slowly scooted forward like she couldn’t wait to love on your baby 😭"

"That’s how you know you picked the right daycare! She loves your baby like she’s hers 🖤"

"I love the fact they had cameras so you could see it but I loved the worker even more. She was her biggest cheerleader."

"Your little one knew exactly where she wanted to walk to, straight to someone that loves her big when mama can't be there. ❤️ I know it had to break your heart not being there but seeing it is amazing."

Of course, the internet is going to internet, and some people felt the need to say that babies should be home with their mothers. But that ignores the economic reality of our time, which often necessitates two working parents. It also ignores the fact that being a stay-at-home parent isn't ideal for every person, so it's silly to make sweeping judgments. If people truly believe that babies at first steps age should be home with a parent, they should be petitioning the government to match other developed nations' paid parental leave policies.

Since the average age of a baby's first steps is around a year old, Norway's 49 weeks of parental leave at full pay or 59 weeks at 80% pay would fit the bill. Bulgaria's 410 days of 90% paid leave wouldn't be too shabby, either. Sweden gets you past a year at 390 days at 80% pay—see where we're going here? Could the fact that the U.S. is the only wealthy nation with zero guaranteed paid parental leave be stopping many moms or dads from staying home with their babies during that first year? Perhaps.

Since daycare is a necessity here for so many families, let's celebrate the people who take on those childcare roles with genuine love for kids and interest in their well-being. The Shikiras of the world provide parents with so much peace of mind and deserve to be lifted up as a vital part of our collective village.

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People are debating the merits of a 24-hour daycare and the discussion is eye-opening

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about the need for this.

StableDiffusion

Are 24-hour daycares a good idea?

Millions of American parents utilize daycare centers while they work. Since most people work during the day, most daycare center hours fall somewhere between 7:30am and 5:30pm. It's rare to find a daycare that's open after normal working hours.

But one "24-hour" daycare in Houston captured people's attention—and sparked a debate—when a mom posted about it on TikTok.

Adventure Kids Playcare in Houston isn't actually open 24 hours a day but it does offer childcare up to 10:00pm during the week and until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. In the video, the mom drops her daughter off and we hear the employee tell her they close at midnight. The mom later says she picked her daughter up at 11:55pm.

Reactions to the video rand the gamut from "24-hour daycares are a brilliant idea for parents who work odd shifts" to "Moms shouldn't be leaving their kids at a daycare late at night just so they can go out," sparking a fascinating and eye-opening discussion.

First, here's the video that kicked off the whole debate:

@watchingalicia

😅😅🤷🏾‍♀️ #fypシ゚viral #fyp #girlmom #daughter #momsoftiktok #parenting #momlife

The video hit the popular Instagram account The Shade Room where people debated whether this kind of daycare arrangement was a positive or negative, and there was a wide range of opinions on all sides.

Some folks poo-pooed the idea of a 24-hour daycare center in general, which most people were quick to squash. Not everyone works a 9-to-5 job, and not everyone has access to people who can watch their kids in the evenings when they're at work, so a childcare center that's open late or all night provides a service some working parents might need.

"The convenience of a 24-hour daycare can't be overstated, especially for parents working unconventional hours," shared one X user. "It's a game-changer for the night shift workers and emergency responders who keep our cities running."

But a lot of the debate centered around parents leaving their kids at a care center not to work, but to go out at night and socialize. Some people felt strongly that it was inappropriate for kids to be up well past a standard child's bedtime waiting for their parent to pick them up. Some felt that a parent should have a babysitter come to the house so the child can sleep in their own bed and not be kept awake until late. On the flip side, others pointed out that a late night playing with other kids at a licensed, reputable facility would be fun for a lot of kids, and it may actually be a safer option than hiring a teenager to come stay at your house while your kid sleeps.

Others debated the appropriateness of a mother leaving her child at a facility late at night to go out on the town in general, stating that work is one thing but going out for purely social or personal reasons is another. Interestingly, this element of the discourse seemed to center entirely around mothers, which could be a whole other discussion for another day. Some people claimed that a mom dropping her kid off to go out late is being selfish and putting her needs above her child's. Others pointed out that all mothers—or parents—need breaks sometimes, and no one can judge what another parent does without knowing their full circumstances. As one commenter wrote, "Not everybody has a village."

The final fascinating split in this debate were the parents who feel unsafe leaving their children with anyone other than immediate family versus the parents who feel it's good for kids to have other caregivers and socialize with kids they don't know. The varying levels of trust or mistrust, comfort or fear parents have when it comes to their children offers some insight into how differently people view the world. Is one side right and the other wrong, or is it merely a difference in perception and personal preference?

If nothing else, hopefully the breadth of the discussion opened people's eyes to different viewpoints and to life circumstances they may not have considered. Often we can get stuck looking at and judging things through our own lens, forgetting that there's a whole big world of diverse situations we may not even be aware of that might make one person's "nope" another person's "yes, please and thank you."

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Mom's new email signature has parents everywhere applauding her honesty about expectations

"I'm still good at my job. I'm still a professional. I'm also a mom of four kids and this is reality in America."

Meg St-Esprit|Twitter and Ketut Subiyanto|Canva

Mom creates relatable email signature for parents.

Childcare in America has been an issue since well before most of us were born, and it continues to be a struggle for parents. Daycare costs are rough—at one point in time, I paid $276 a week for one child to attend a daycare center, and that's not even the highest price I was quoted. But not everyone can afford the cost of childcare, and when you have multiple children who all need adult supervision, the cost can become astronomical.

The cost of childcare can cause some parents to make the decision to stay home while the other works if the family can survive on one income. In other instances, parents may be working from home while also juggling full-time parenting responsibilities. For parents in the latter category, one mom's new email signature is serving as a reminder that childcare is expensive and school is out for the summer.

Meg St-Esprit was in the process of looking up babysitters and summer camps and realizing how unaffordable it was to try to accommodate four children when a "snippy" email came through, according to Today.com.

"In the moment, I was like: 'This is how it's going to be — people are going to need to know that this is how it's going to be for the next couple months,'" St-Esprit, told Today.com. "I'm still good at my job. I'm still a professional. I'm also a mom of four kids and this is reality in America."

St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so while her job may allow her to have some flexibility, people still expect prompt replies to correspondence. This mom decided that instead of adding additional stress to her plate, she would be brutally honest in her email signature. Honestly, the signature is pretty darn accurate. There are plenty of families in similar situations that probably wish they could change their email signature to something similar.

The signature reads, "Please note I may be slower to respond to email in the months of June, July and August due to the United States' inability to provide affordable childcare for working mothers."

St-Esprit shared a photo of her email signature to Twitter where she received a lot of support from other parents. She wrote about the benefits of universal subsidized childcare for the United States, saying, "The US is the only developed nation w/o subsidized childcare. Adding it would increase our GDP over 1 trillion dollars. Not a handout — it’s a smart decision when facing a recession and labor shortages."

While states do offer childcare assistance for lower-income families, the threshold can unintentionally cause parents to make difficult decisions to keep their childcare subsidy. I recall a phone call made by a parent who attended my child's daycare. The mom was explaining to her partner that she was given a promotion, but after speaking to the daycare director, if she took the raise, she would lose her subsidy and they would suddenly be responsible for paying nearly $900 a week. My eyes bulged at the thought, and as she collected her twins from my son's classroom, she pondered accepting the position but asking to keep the same pay because the new cost of daycare would essentially be a pay cut.

I have no idea what the outcome was in that situation because I was just a bystander, but the conversation stuck with me. It partly stuck out because I could've benefitted from a subsidy and partly because many middle-class families struggle with affording childcare but don't qualify for any sort of program to assist.

In a different tweet, St-Esprit also mentions this in-between experience.

"Today I went to my 4yo’s PreK Counts classroom for yoga with a special grownup. This is the only subsidized childcare my children have been able to access as middle earners and it’s been a GIFT. It also reduces educational costs long term because of the early education benefits," the freelance journalist wrote.

Surprisingly, through St-Esprit's frustrated signature, she found solidarity in the email responses she's received.

"I work with a lot of clients, so I thought maybe I should delete it," St-Esprit told Today.com. "Then people started to reply to it, writing: 'Side note: I love this.' 'Side note: Oh my gosh, this.'"

Obviously, there's something a little wonky with America's way of handling childcare. It's especially noticeable in comparison with other industrialized countries that have found a way to not only offer extended paid parental leave but also provide subsidized childcare for working parents.

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Divorce attorney shares why working moms are leaving their marriages

Women are not shocked by his answer.

Cottonbro from Pexels|Canva - Dennis Vetrano Jr.|TikTok

Working moms are filing for divorce more often

Being a parent is a full time job but without the money and health benefits. Kissing scrapped knees, planning meals, scheduling doctor appointments, extracurricular activities, PTO meetings, the list could go on for days. But in today's society many women with children not only work inside the home but outside as well because a two income household is necessary in many cases. So why are moms leaving their marriages to do it all on their own?

Divorce attorney, Dennis Vetrano Jr. posted a video to TikTok that has over 7.4 million views, explaining the rise of working moms filing for divorce. The revelation came as no surprise to women or other divorce attorneys who commented under Vetrano's video but it may be surprising to some men.

You know how there's that saying that girls mature faster than boys, the initiation of divorce by working moms may be a continuation of that notion.

"I'm seeing working moms doing it all, and I'm seeing the husbands step back and say, huh I don't gotta do a thing. She's got the kids, she's got the groceries, she's got the laundry, she's got the meals, she's got the work," Vetrano says. "That's the theme and women are tired."

Over the past few decades women have taken on more roles outside of the home out of necessity and desire but their load inside the home hasn't decreased. The wives Vetrano is speaking about have partners who haven't caught up with the evolution of roles. Essentially still living like the 50s expecting their wives to take care of all household responsibilities while ignoring the fact that their wives work outside of the home just like they do.

"We even filed the divorce, find the attorney, created the child custody schedule," one woman wrote.

"After my divorce I had one less child to take care of. Leveled up," another commented.

"I will never forget the day I said 'if i'm doing it all by myself, I might as well be by myself,'" someone else wrote.

Another divorce lawyer even chimed in saying that her clients who are women are often much happier after divorce. It certainly makes you wonder about the maturity theme here. Not in the way of men being immature but women adapting much more quickly to societal shifts as some men struggle to keep up or even see the correlation that leads to divorce.

Take a look at the video below and if you're feeling extra adventurous, check out the comments under the main video to see if you agree with the sentiments women are expressing.

@drvlaw

The major theme I’ve been seeing? Women are TIRED #divorce #divorced #divorceparty #divorcedlife #divorcedmom #divorcesucks #divorcecoach #divorcedparents #divorceattorney #divorcesupport #divorceparties #divorcehelp #divorcerecovery #DivorceForce #divorcecourt #divorcecommunity #divorcedonedifferently #divorceddad #divorcechaos #divorceproceedings #divorcedmoms #divorcee #divorcecoaching #divorcees #divorcecake #divorcelawyer #divorceeducation #divorcesurvivor

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